Office of Operations Freight Management and Operations

Freight Facts and Figures 2008

Table 4-1. Economic Characteristics of Transportation and Warehousing Establishments in Freight-Dominated Modes: 1997 and 2002

The freight industry has many components, encompassing companies large and small.  All told there were about 200,000 transportation and warehousing establishments in 2002, with more than one-half of those primarily engaged in trucking.  Revenue generated by trucking accounts for about 40 percent of transportation and warehousing sector revenue while warehousing accounts for a small percentage of the total.

Table in Excel format

Blank cell. Establishments
1997
Establishments
2002
Revenue (Current $ thousands)
1997
Revenue (Current $ thousands)
2002
Payroll (Current $ thousands)
1997
Payroll (Current $ thousands)
2002
Paid Employees
1997

Paid Employees
2002

Transportation and warehousing1 178,025 199,618 318,245,044 382,152,040 82,346,182 115,988,733 2,920,777 3,650,859
Rail transportation NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
Water transportation 1,921 1,890 24,019,168 23,331,333 2,834,114 3,194,391 72,857 66,153
Truck transportation1 103,798 112,642 141,225,398 164,218,769 38,471,272 47,750,111 1,293,790 1,435,210
Pipeline transportation 2,311 2,188 26,836,992 22,031,419 2,660,576 2,476,638 49,280 36,790
Support activities for transportation 30,675 33,942 39,758,245 57,414,131 12,592,441 16,202,043 411,640 465,616
Couriers and messengers 10,887 12,655 39,812,433 58,164,869 14,071,630 17,175,401 530,839 561,514
Warehousing and storage1 6,497 12,671 10,657,925 16,547,657 2,926,119 17,183,289 109,760 565,533

Key: NA = not available.

1Enterprise support establishments are included in 2002 but not 1997, thus the two years are not comparable.

Notes:

Total includes air transportation, transit and ground passenger transportation, and scenic and sightseeing transportation. Data are for establishments in which transportation is the primary business. Data exclude transportation provided privately, such as trucking organized “in-house” by a grocery company. Data are not collected for rail transportation nor for governmental organizations even when their primary activity would be classified in industries covered by the census. For example, data are not collected for publicly operated buses and subway systems.

Sources:

U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, 2002 Economic Census, Transportation and Warehousing, United States, available at www.census.gov/econ/census02/data/us/US000_48.HTM as of April 24, 2008; U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, 1997 Economic Census, Transportation and Warehousing, United States, available at www.census.gov/epcd/ec97/us/US000_48.HTM as of April 24, 2008.

 

 


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